In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful, the Truthful and the Most Just: I greet all of you once again who are hungry and thirsty for Allah’s understanding of His righteousness: I greet you all with the greeting words of peace: May Allah’s-Salaam-Alaikum.
Brothers and Sisters, we are going to do something a little different this evening. As I told you last night, I have a guest this evening: the District Attorney for this 22nd Circuit District [of Mississippi].
I knew Alexander Martin, but I never met Ms. Shorter. She worked under him, which I just found out. So I’m going to briefly read a little of her bio so that we can all be introduced to her for the first time.
Daniella Shorter was born and raised in Port Gibson, Mississippi, and is a Port Gibson High School class of 2002 graduate. She was born to Ollie L. (Wilson) Shorter, a native of Jefferson County, Mississippi and a Liddell High School class of 1959 graduate and the late Carl E. Haywood of Port Gibson.
She has four sisters who are all teachers, and one brother who is a master welder and currently works in law enforcement. They all hail from Port Gibson as well.
Daniella graduated from Jackson State University with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2005 and is a 2008 University of Mississippi School of Law graduate where she obtained her juris doctor degree.
From there Daniella was a staff attorney with the Ninth Chancery Court District in Vicksburg, Mississippi; operated her own law office, the Law Office of Daniella M. Shorter, PLLC where she practiced criminal defense, chancery, and civil litigation; before finally moving to Greenville, Mississippi to become an Assistant District Attorney for the Fourth Circuit District Attorney’s Office in Washington, Leflore, and Sunflower Counties.
Daniella moved to the Mississippi Delta to gain the knowledge, skill, and training necessary to be a prosecutor at the state level. She worked at the District Attorney’s Office in Washington County for over three years before moving back home to Port Gibson to be an Assistant District Attorney for the Twenty-Second Circuit District under the leadership of the honorable Alexander C. Martin which encompasses Claiborne, Copiah and Jefferson Counties.
Just like in the Delta, Daniella prosecuted all manner of felony crimes when she moved back home. She has almost a decade and a half of experience prosecuting murder, armed robbery, carjacking, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, house burglary, grand larceny, embezzlement and ALL other felony crimes that arrive on her desk. She has extensive jury trial experience prosecuting felony crimes.
Daniella has been lead prosecutor or co- prosecutor on more than sixty criminal felony trials during the length of her career.
After four years of serving as Assistant District Attorney in the Twenty-Second District, Daniella ran, unopposed, for the Office of District Attorney of the Twenty-Second Circuit District. She was sworn-in for duty by the honorable Presiding Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, James W. “Jim” Kitchens, and has been serving as District Attorney in Claiborne, Copiah, and Jefferson Counties since January 2020.
Daniella stated, “It is an absolute honor to serve the people of my community and seek justice for them. It has been my career mission to serve in the role of District Attorney as an advocate for what’s right and just, and to treat all people fairly and equally.”
Her main office is in Hazlehurst, Mississippi and her satellite office is in Port Gibson. Daniella has expanded the budget of the Office, has written grants and hired three new personnel under those grants to serve the people of the Twenty-Second, and has incorporated a program for group grief counseling for surviving family members of homicide victims.
She spends one-on-one time with all the high schools in her district and sponsors multiple football and basketball teams in Claiborne, Copiah, and Jefferson counties. She can also be found reading to elementary school students and sponsoring classes of tiny tots as well. She can always be found supporting students at athletic events and teaching them their rights at school. Her love for children has always been a driving force to her work as District Attorney.
She is stern when it comes to crimes against children and vulnerable adults and prosecutes those cases to the fullest extent of the law. Daniella’s office is a victim-centric office where she makes sure their rights are respected so that they don’t become victimized twice.
Daniella has one beautiful, lovely two-year-old son who is the light of her world and who drives her passion even more to make sure violent offenders are brought to justice. She is a member of Forest Grove Christian Church in Pattison, Mississippi and credits her faith in God as the reason for her passion and will to serve.
Philippians 2:13 says, “for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
Daniella often quotes this verse because being a public servant, specifically being District Attorney, is the profession and career path that God called her to do. That specific desire is the single-most reason for her dedication and success in the profession of District Attorney.
As I’ve looked at politics even more and looked at government, I’ve developed a new respect for the system of democracy. Until the kingdom of God is established on Earth, democracy is the closest thing to ensuring that people have a degree of freedom.
It’s just like when you represent people. The court refers to you as “the people”, because the people chose an advocate to ensure that they could walk the streets safely.
I’m sorry that I stumbled over some of [your bio]. I’m not the best reader, but it is wonderful to have people that have respect for the laws that we all agreed to be governed by; and if we don’t like the laws, you don’t have to break the law. You petition the government to change it.
That’s the beauty of this; and people are not respecting that. That’s why I’m reading that January 6th report to the people—so that they will understand what they are about to lose.
But anyway, that’s enough on that. I want to let District Attorney Shorter straighten out whatever I messed up [smiles] and then we will have a nice dialogue [along with] questions.
I want everyone who’s listening to know that I’m not going to rush her off. If you want to ask her questions, she has made herself at our disposal.
I was talking to some of the people, and they wanted her to come on, and I did too. So I sent the invitation out and she accepted it.
So now, you can reintroduce yourself and tell us what I messed up here.
District Attorney Shorter: Good evening.
Son of Man: Good evening.
District Attorney Shorter: I don’t think you messed up a single thing. That bio is very thorough, and it tells basically everything about why I do what I do. When I say that it’s a “calling”, different texts of the Word say that one has to be called in order to preach the gospel. You have to be chosen before you’re called, so I think that’s not just true for religion or for different texts. I think that’s also true for public service in general, if you’re in it for the right reasons.
Also, like my bio says: all of my sisters are school teachers. Some are retired and some are not. Being a school teacher is not something I think you go into to get rich, but it is something that is very rewarding; because you get to make a difference in the lives of impressionable minds.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am.
District Attorney Shorter: So, former District Attorney Alexander Martin told me this: “It’s a difficult job because you’re getting pulled in all different directions.” He gave an example of some people pulling your arm, maybe the victims and the defendants pulling your other arm, and then you have the politics pulling your left leg and you have something else pulling your right leg.
Those were not his examples, but he was basically saying that you are being pulled in all different directions, and it’s a profession of many facets because I have to be knowledgeable and skilled enough to look at a case, decide which angle to prosecute it from if a grand jury has indicted it, [know] which witnesses to call, and then have the skill to go into the courtroom and know how to conduct direct examination.
I’m talking to the jury to decide whether or not I can get twelve fair jurors. [I also need to know] how to conduct cross examination in order to get down to the truth.
Law school taught us that the answer is within us. The answer is within the person on that stand too. They are going to be trying, depending on what side they are on, to keep that from you and you have to know how to get it out of them.
So it doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does happen, it’s awesome. So with all of that being said, being District Attorney is something that you have to have a passion for, a desire for: because when you come out of law school, you can do anything.
You can go into any type of law, and to go into a legal profession where it’s in public service, you’re not going to make as much money as somebody who is doing personal injury. You’re not going to make as much money as somebody who is doing wrongful death.
When you do this, you have to do it because this is what is in your heart to do.
So as we were discussing a little bit earlier before we came on the air, I said it has to be a desire; and I said [that with] everything that comes from this, it has to be a willingness.
People can make more money doing something else. I didn’t want to do Criminal Law. It’s the one thing I said I didn’t want to do before I went to law school; and I said I didn’t want anybody’s life or freedom in my hands.
Then I clerked my first year at law school for the Attorney General’s office and for Mr. Alexander Martin, who was the District Attorney at the time, and it changed my whole philosophy. I got to see what victims were like when you won a case.
Whatever is happening, you can’t get it back. If it’s a rape case, you can never get back what was taken from your body. If it’s a home burglary case, well at least you’re okay, but the violation of your home: Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary.
I remember when we were burglarized when I was a child. My mother threw out all of her groceries. She threw out all of her medication, because she said, “I just don’t know what they took.”
Son of Man: It’s hard to feel safe at home.
District Attorney Shorter: It’s hard to feel safe. And if, God forbid, somebody is murdered and you have a surviving family, they will never be made whole. But sometimes they get some type of solace in knowing that the person who did it is going to prison, or is answering for the crime that they committed.
So with all of that being said, the reward is from the people that you help. And I often say that everybody thinks about the defendant’s rights. When you watch these television shows, they say, “You have a right to remain silent. Anything you do or say can be used against you in a court of law”, so on and so forth.
Then they have a right not to testify. That’s their right to remain silent. They don’t have to present any evidence at trial. They can sit there and draw or color in a book. Their attorney doesn’t have to say anything, but they’re clothed with the presumption of innocence throughout the whole trial, and they are clothed unless and until the prosecution has proven its case to you: every single element beyond a reasonable doubt.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am.
District Attorney Shorter: That burden is on the state. And I often tell my jury panel that that’s a burden I embrace. It should be on me. The last thing I want to do is prosecute an innocent person to prison.
Son of Man: I was told that they have a saying that says that it is better for ten or a hundred guilty people to go free, than for one innocent person to be put away for something that they didn’t do; and I can understand that.
District Attorney Shorter: I can too.
Son of Man: Because that calling means you take your job seriously; and [with] every case that you take, you believe that you are right in what you are doing. It’s not just a job.
District Attorney Shorter: Exactly.
Son of Man: I’m not trying to put words in your mouth.
District Attorney Shorter: No, you said it perfectly.
Son of Man: Go ahead.
District Attorney Shorter: There was one case back when I was in Washington county that I just knew the grand jury was going to indict. When someone says the DA indicted a person, that’s not true. The DA never indicts. The DA doesn’t have the power to indict. Only the grand jury has the power to indict.
And that’s 22 to 25 people that are not disqualified to serve as jurors. The only qualification is that you’re not disqualified.
So the first 25 people that are not disqualified—such as they have a felony conviction or they’ve already served or something like that, whatever the qualifications are that the judge goes over when you’re called to jury duty: The first 22 to 25 that are not disqualified are the grand jurors.
The grand jury hears the evidence. They only hear the evidence from the side of the State. The defense doesn’t come in. When they hear that evidence, they decide whether or not there’s enough to return an indictment.
So once a person is indicted, it’s my role to present the case unbiased, and let them know everything that’s in the file, good or bad and ugly, because contrary to popular belief, I don’t go into a grand jury room with an intent to indict anybody. I go into the grand jury room with the intent that the truth comes out, and the people make the choice; and that way, there’s not too much power wielded by one person.
The people decide. When they decide, it’s my duty to prosecute.
Son of Man: Now you just brought a point home that I think people need to really think about, because District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been accused of things that were out of his hands.
The grand jury indicted Mr. Trump. It’s the District Attorney’s job to prosecute that case.
District Attorney Shorter: And he is sworn to do just that.
Son of Man: Yes. Without fear or favor. And that’s the same thing in every county and in every state all over this country.
District Attorney Shorter: That’s correct. We are sworn to do a duty. When I was in Greenville and we had a multiple murderer—I mean, he killed everybody in the house.
That was the first trial I got to see as Assistant District Attorney. I had no trial experience at all.
He shot the one man in the head but, whatever way it went, it missed all of the important things, and he was able to climb out of the window and go call for help.
I said all of that to say that when he got out of jail, he made threats against one of the ADA’s (Assistant District Attorneys) that prosecuted the case. (Not me.) Then the FBI had to be called in to prosecute him for making threats against the life of an Assistant District Attorney.
Fast forward, I became District Attorney, and threats were made against my life, and threats were made against my unborn child’s life; and it never stopped me from pursuing justice. It never stopped me from carrying on with the prosecution, because number 1: the defendant was guilty; and number 2: That’s the job that I was sworn to do. If I was too timid for that, then I should have never—
Son of Man: You should’ve never gone into it.
District Attorney Shorter: Exactly. So I went into it knowing what I was going into, but oddly enough, I’ve never been afraid—well, until I had my son.
Son of Man: Afraid for him.
District Attorney Shorter: Yes. Children have a way of making you see things differently. So I don’t have any fear when it comes to it. I go jogging and different things, and people say, “Well do you take your gun?”
I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but I’m like, “No, I don’t take my gun.” I don’t take my gun. I feel like I’m more of a threat to myself with that gun than I am without it. [smiles]
Son of Man: You got that right. I haven’t picked up a gun since I got back from Vietnam. I don’t want a gun.
District Attorney Shorter: So what I’m saying is, I still carry out the duties of my profession, and I do it willfully and I do it knowingly; and when I say it’s an honor to represent the people, it is.
There’s a lyric to a rap song that says that “nobody remembers the person behind the gun, but the one in front of the gun lives forever”. Well, I don’t know if that’s necessarily true because you know the name of Ted Bundy and you know the name of… I’m drawing a blank now.
Son of Man: Judas.
District Attorney Shorter: Yes, of course. One of the first, right?
Son of Man: Yeah.
Son of Man & District Attorney Shorter: Cain.
Son of Man: Oh yeah, you remember those murderers.
District Attorney Shorter: Yeah. So, you remember those names; and most of the time, what I find is that people don’t even remember the names of the victims.
Son of Man: That’s right.
District Attorney Shorter: We say that “12 were killed in a school shooting”. We remember the name of the person that killed them, but not the names of those 12.
My job is to make sure that the people know the names of those 12.
I am thinking about the person who lost their life, and I am thinking about the person who was victimized.
In some instances, there is no physical victim. There is no human victim. In some cases, like in the selling of illicit drugs, then the victim is the State of Mississippi; and that’s who I represent: the State of Mississippi in the district that I’m chosen (Claiborne, Copiah, and Jefferson Counties), and it is the most satisfying work that I’ve done.
This is my first year getting into the politics; because when I was selected, I was unopposed my first term; and this year, I have an opponent.
So I’m just now delving into the politics of it. It’s amazing, because everything I thought I hated, I find out that I love.
I thought I would hate politics, and I was just telling my cousin Nancy, that I literally quit Girl Scouts because I didn’t want to have to ask people to buy cookies. [smiles]
So now, I have to ask people to donate, and I have to ask people to vote for me; but so far, it’s been wonderful, because the people are so reassuring and they are saying, “Well, I’ve heard that you’ve been doing great things.”
Son of Man: That’s how you got here. [smiles]
I always ask the believers what’s going on. The people that I know in the community always tell me who they think is doing a good job, and who they think is not; because a lot of times, people that don’t know how this functions, think that I’m telling everybody what to do; when actually, they tell me who to support.
I mean, you’re talking to the wrong one. You better go talk to the people who are following me.
They are the ones who tell me who I should support. So I’m always wanting to just talk with people.
It’s just like what you are doing: You’re so forthcoming. I don’t even have to ask you any questions.
Just keep sharing with the people. I can tell that you have a passion for it, because it just flows from you. Your reasons for doing things, and a lot of things you thought that you would not want to do, and now you are doing them: I’m like that.
Do you think I thought I was ever going to be a preacher? Nooooo. [smiles] Can’t you tell? I mean, really. And now I’m sitting here doing something that I used to hate.
I used to hate going to church. I hated to have to go there and listen to all of that, because I didn’t understand any of it; and then when I understood that there truly is a God, Elijah Muhammad turned my whole life around.
For the first time, the Bible became real to me. Jesus, Moses, David, Solomon. And do you know something he (the Honorable Elijah Muhammad) said? He said, “God never chooses a man unless he’s willing to give up his life for the Truth.”
District Attorney Shorter: That’s deep.
Son of Man: The fear of man bringeth a snare. That’s what Solomon said in Proverbs 29:25. It says,
The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.
That’s why when people think they can get away with it, they threaten you; and if you are weak and you aren’t committed—
District Attorney Shorter: You will leave.
Son of Man: You will stop what you are doing.
If what you are doing is right, then you’re not willing to die for what’s right?
If it comes to it, yes, I will die for what’s right; because if I’m doing right, God is on my side. And if I have to die for it, He allowed that. And if it pleases Him, then it pleases me.
District Attorney Shorter: When I made my first announcement on my personal Facebook page, I think it may be somewhere around 7 or 8 thousand views now; but I made my announcement that I was seeking the Office of District Attorney, and I said, “God is not a respector of persons and neither am I. So your socioeconomic status does not matter, your skin color does not matter, who you know does not matter, who you are does not matter. The only thing that matters is what’s right, because justice knows none of that.”
Son of Man: That’s right.
District Attorney Shorter: So I have been committed to that since I took office, before I took office; I said that if I am opposed because I valued those principles and I’ve upheld those principles, then so be it. I’ll [have to] be opposed every time, because I will not be manipulated. I will not be—
Son of Man: Bribed.
District Attorney Shorter: Yeah. Puppeted.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am.
District Attorney Shorter: I will not be the face for somebody else’s thoughts or their intent. I will always do what will enable me to have a clear conscience, and sleep well at night.
Son of Man: A clear conscience is a peaceful night’s rest.
District Attorney Shorter: Tell me about it. [smiles] There is nothing, nothing more valuable than peace.
Son of Man: That’s it.
District Attorney Shorter: You can have everything in the world and not have peace. Then what’s the point?
Son of Man: Mark 8:36 says,
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
That’s true.
District Attorney Shorter: So I have to have peace about it. I have to know that I’m doing the right thing, and if a case comes back not guilty, I may not like it; but that’s the will of the people. That’s our justice system.
He was tried, or she was tried, and that’s what the people said. I can move on knowing I did everything that I was supposed to do.
So when you were talking about that quote that says that it’s better that a hundred guilty men walk free than to send an innocent man to prison, I agree with that.
[When] I was a young prosecutor just starting out, it was maybe my second year prosecuting, and there was this man who had a barbershop, and he was robbed, allegedly. I just knew that the grand jury was not going to return an indictment. This was several years ago.
He got in there and he was just very theatrical about how it happened, and his story changed three or four times.
Obviously the story changed three or four times; and lo and behold, they indicted that case; and I was looking at it like, what am I supposed to do with this? [smiles] I had the phone records pulled, and I was like, how can I make heads or tails of this? Can they ping [the defendant’s] phone and say that he was there? None of the other witnesses could identify him, and he was identified by his walk, I believe.
Son of Man: By his walk? [smiles]
District Attorney Shorter: By his walk. Now there are cases where people are identified by their walk, but just the facts of the case and how everything was set up did not appear to me that there was enough evidence at all to go forward on that case; and the defense attorney gave me permission to speak with the defendant, and I went to the jail and I talked to the defendant with one of the investigators. I was wracked. I could not sleep, I was trying to prepare for trial and nothing was flowing because…
Son of Man: The evidence wasn’t there.
District Attorney Shorter: Right. I don’t know how you prepare for a sermon, but I would imagine that it flows, you know. There’s some life to it.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am. When I’m working and everything, I listen to my teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The man has been dead since 1975, and I’m still going to school under him; because the things that he said way back, have new meaning to me now.
So that’s how I prepare. I mean, I’m not going to get up here and tell you that I know what I’m going to say before I get up here; but in a way, I know what I’m going to say because Allah reassures me. He said in Luke 12:11-12,
11 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:
12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
“Take no thought, and in that same moment, it will be given to you what to say.”
It’s just like—I didn’t know what I was going to ask you, or what I was going to say to you.
District Attorney Shorter: Me either.
Son of Man: But I asked Allah to help me, and this has been going just smoothly.
District Attorney Shorter: Swimmingly.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am.
District Attorney Shorter: I didn’t bring anything, and I was like: I’m just going to have a good talk.
I found out that it’s better if I don’t try to follow notes. That’s how I am at trial. Now that process, I’m still writing a lot of stuff down, getting into it.
Recently, there was a trial I was preparing for here in Jefferson County, and I had not thought about what my theme would be for closing arguments. And as I was on 61 headed to Jefferson County, a song came on, and I was like, “That’s perfect!”
I changed one or two words, and it was perfect. We got a guilty verdict on it by the way. It was a murder case.
So what I’m saying is: It’s a process, and there was the one time where none of the process worked. Everything was jumbled up, nothing was organized, and nothing was flowing. I went to talk to my boss at that time. His name is Dwayne Richardson and he’s also an African American District Attorney, so there are more of us now.
I think there’s seven African American District Attorneys in the State of Mississippi.
The State of Mississippi has 22 districts, and we have formed a 23rd district somewhere. I think in North Mississippi, there will be a 23rd district, but right now there are still 22. And I said, I just can’t do it. I don’t see it. And he said, “I will allow you to trust your judgment”.
That’s why I appreciated him as a boss and as a teacher. And when the defendant was released, the streets rejoiced and they said he didn’t do it.
Son of Man: He didn’t do it. And you didn’t try to force the issue.
District Attorney Shorter: And I don’t know if he did it or not, but I know the evidence didn’t support it.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am.
District Attorney Shorter: And that’s one time when you can, as a prosecutor, use your best judgment. That’s the only case I’ve experienced like that, by the way, but it just was not there.
Son of Man: Now you just proved that you weren’t lying with what you just said; because you said [earlier that] this is your calling, but your calling is not to prosecute innocent people.
District Attorney Shorter: It’s not.
Son of Man: You don’t do that.
District Attorney Shorter: Nope. When I go into the courtroom, I 100% believe and I think and I know that I have the evidence to prove that they are guilty. If the people go “not guilty”, that’s what they decided; but it wasn’t because there was not enough evidence for them to give a guilty verdict.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am.
District Attorney Shorter: I’ve never gone in and said “I want this person! I’m going to get them”. No, I’d never do that. The only thing I want is the truth and justice. That’s it.
Son of Man: You know why justice is a lady, don’t you?
District Attorney Shorter: No.
Son of Man: The reason justice is a lady, is because when you go to court, you take an oath. Since God is the Truth, remember: the Scripture says that the Word is God. John 1:1 says,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Since God is the Truth, then if you want justice, the Truth goes into the courtroom.
You notice, the old people used to call it “courting”.
District Attorney Shorter: They did. [smiles]
Son of Man: That’s what the term “courting” comes from.
District Attorney Shorter: That makes sense.
Son of Man: Justice is a lady. So when you put the Truth into the lady, she gets pregnant; and when she yields, what she produces is called “justice”.
District Attorney Shorter: That is an amazing way to look at it.
Son of Man: Yes, it’s all symbolism.
District Attorney Shorter: It is.
Son of Man: That’s what this world is full of: symbolism; and when you understand that it’s symbolism, it makes you have more respect for what’s really going on here. Somebody had some sense. God helped them set this up.
District Attorney Shorter: True.
Son of Man: There’s no way they could have done what they did here. When you read the Constitution, it’s like reading the Word of God if you really understood the First Amendment. It’s like these people who are trying to force women to have babies that they don’t want. You can’t force your religious views on people. I know I don’t do it. I’m not trying to.
District Attorney Shorter: That was the whole purpose of why this country was created.
Son of Man: Yes, freedom from religion was the first thing they wanted.
District Attorney Shorter: That was it.
Son of Man: Not freedom of it, but freedom from it.
District Attorney Shorter: That’s right.
Son of Man: Because so many atrocities were committed—
District Attorney Shorter: In the Name of God.
Son of Man: …by those lying priests.
District Attorney Shorter: Yes. Wars and wars and wars in the name of God.
Son of Man: Crusades.
District Attorney Shorter: Yep. I was just talking about that.
Son of Man: Religion is something that is voluntary.
District Attorney Shorter: That’s right.
Son of Man: You cannot legislate morals, I don’t care how you try. What do you think “coming out the closet” means?
District Attorney Shorter: They were literally in the closet.
Son of Man: They were already doing it and they were hiding it. I don’t care what kind of laws you make, until you change the minds of people—
District Attorney Shorter: You know, sodomy is still against the law.
Son of Man: Yes. They haven’t taken it off the books. But that’s a religious thing. You see, you don’t answer to each other for breaking God’s laws. You answer to God.
District Attorney Shorter: You answer to each other for breaking man’s laws.
Son of Man: There you go. So I tell people all the time: God doesn’t like what you are doing there, but that’s your freedom. You go on, but I did tell you. The only thing I’m responsible for is warning people, but what they do after that, that’s on them.
District Attorney Shorter: I still have that visualization in my head about—
Son of Man: Justice?
District Attorney Shorter: Yes. And it’s so funny because I just recreated the seal for my office and I put Themis in the center of the seal. Sometimes they call Themis “Lady Justice”, but what signifies Themis is that of course she’s always blindfolded, she’s always got the pair of scales in her hand, she has a sword, she’s standing on a stack of books, and she has a serpent swerving around her legs; and all of that means something because…
Son of Man: Well the serpent is representative to what’s in the Bible. Genesis 3:14-15 says,
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The woman seed shall bruise his head.
District Attorney Shorter: And the sword.
Son of Man: The sword is the spoken Word.
District Attorney Shorter: Which is the Word of God, which is the Word of Truth.
Son of Man: Yes ma’am.
District Attorney Shorter: And when we were looking for it, I told my assistant to look for Themis, and she came back with one without the serpent; and I told her you have to have the serpent. It has to balance. You have to have the serpent down there.
Son of Man: Yes, good versus evil. Right versus wrong.
District Attorney Shorter: Exactly.
Son of Man: Remember, God created evil. As He said, “I make peace and create evil.”
District Attorney Shorter: Where’s that at?
Son of Man: That’s in Isaiah. Isaiah 45:7 says,
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isaiah 32:17 says,
And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
You don’t have to wonder if what you’re doing is righteousness. If you’re practicing something that doesn’t bring you peace, you aren’t practicing righteousness.
The Son & Sun of Man
Messenger of the Covenant
The Son of Man
5306 Red Lick Road
Lorman, MS 39096
Home # (601) 786-6267 or 786-9742
Cell # (601) 786-1332
E-mail: lightchilde@aol.com
